The 2024 Australian Air Rally - The FBO

[Melo965]

Sutan Sjahrir Air Force Base (WIMG) in Sumatra to RAF Masirah (OOMA) in Oman

 

Ready to start engines in the rain.  Had the brakes tuned up by the Airframe Mechanic.

 

Ready for takeoff.

 

Leaving the Base behind.  Steep climb out and into the clouds by 3,500 ft.

 

On course at cruise altitude of 20,000 ft.  It took the Canberra 3 minutes to get up here.

 

Not much to see down below with the cloud cover.  But the pitch oscillation is minimal at this altitude, which is great.  I burned a lot of excess fuel on the last flight with the pitch oscillations.

 

1 hour flight time.  Smooth sailing with no problems this time.

 

2 hours flight time.  Still overcast below. Flying over the Bay of Bengal.

 

Third hour.  Over India but you would not know it.

 

3.5 hours elapsed time.  Finally can see India below.

 

3.75 hours.  Leaving India behind and back over the Arabian Sea.

 

Fourth hour.  Still over the Arabian Sea.

 

5th hour.  More of the same.

 

Hour Six.  Almost there.  The wind is from the south so about to swing north and land on Runway 17 at RAF Masirah.

 

Close to 3,000 ft.  Still on a long Downwind leg.  Hope I break out into the clear air soon.

 

Runway 17 in sight.

 

Over the numbers.

 

Parked at RAF Masirah.  A good flight with no problems.  Brakes were a bit strong on landing after all, so had the Airframe Fitter adjust them again.

 

Next stop is RAF Akrotiri (LCRA) in Cyprus.

[Bossspecops]

Are those USN F-18s still on QRA at Masirah Melo? They never seem to do anything, but they're ALWAYS ready apparently. 

 

20k ft in 7 mins, I WISH! 

[ViperPilot2]

18 minutes ago, Bossspecops said:

Are those USN F-18s still on QRA at Masirah Melo? They never seem to do anything, but they're ALWAYS ready apparently. 

 

20k ft in 7 mins, I WISH! 

Legacy Hornets or Rhinos?

[Bossspecops]

2 hours ago, ViperPilot2 said:

Legacy Hornets or Rhinos?

 

Difficult to tell, they're AI models so you can't see the intakes all that clearly. 

[Melo965]

2 hours ago, Bossspecops said:

Are those USN F-18s still on QRA at Masirah Melo?

 

Oddly there was not another aircraft in sight anywhere.  Yesterday afternoon or this morning.  Maybe they were all flying an exercise somewhere?  I hope to have more company at RAF Akrotiri.

 

[MAD1]

Melo, thanks for the nice report, great pics. Question (I've asked this before of you guys): I've never done a long flight of hours (nor logged a flight plan in the sim), but wish to soonish. How did you do that one, do you take off and get to cruise in sim real time (t speed), then set autopilot to fly the logged route and switch the sim to faster (2t, 3t, or higher etc.), then leave the sim and go about your RW life, knowing to come back occassionally to check that all is OK (plane hasn't drifted off course etc.), and/or come back to the sim close to descent time, switch back to t time, then manually descend and land?

 

So, perhaps you went e.g. 2t, and each sim hour you came back and checked and took the screenshot, coming back at RW 30 minutes later would be sim 1h (given its running at 2t) etc. So a 6 hr flight, at say 6t, is done in 1 hour, and each flight hour will be in RW time at 10 min, 20 min, 30 min etc. Is that how you do it?

 

Maybe there is some article in this flightsim.com site about that Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) but I'm not aware of any, if so, can you guys point me to it/them, or on another sim site.

 

We long-haul sim newbies need guidance re all this.

[jgf]

How I do long flights depends on the aircraft and distance.  My longest non-stop flight was London to Tokyo, about 13 hrs in a C133, all real time;  I flew to near Moscow then hooked the AP to the GPS and went to bed,  the next morning the plane was only 400 miles from Tokyo so I took over and flew it in.  But on many long flights, especially where few or no course corrections are required and/or high altitude, I will use 4X time (any more and the sim stops processing weather, ATC, and AI til you return to normal time, when it stutters and stumbles til everything is caught up).

 

My recent flight from Columbus, OH, to Perth, Australia, was a series of legs dictated by the range of my plane (average 750 miles, though a couple were just over 900 ... had to stringently nurse fuel consumption on those).

 

Airliner flights are almost universally non-stop (the plane makes no money when not in the air) but GA flights are whatever, wherever, however you like to fly.  Set your route and schedule and have fun.

[Melo965]

RAF Masirah (OOMA) in Oman to RAF Akrotiri (LCRA) in Cyprus

 

Engines started in the rain.  Had the brakes recalibrated by the Airframe Fitter.  Working perfectly now.  This PR9 still wants to keep moving, but it is managable now.  And she lands just right, on longer runways of course.

 

Ready for takeoff on runway 17 after a long taxi from the other end of the airfield.

 

Wheels up in a moment.

 

Climbing out and away from the Base.

 

Close to on course and at cruise altitude of 20,000 ft.  Had to swing around after takeoff to get on course.  6 minutes this time.

 

One hour of flight.

 

90 minutes.

 

Spotted the Moon on the left.

 

Two hours elapsed time.  Not much to see below.

 

Third hour.

 

Leaving the Middle East behind.  Over the Mediterranean now.

 

At Top of Descent point.  Destination ahead.

 

Descending.

 

At 3,500 ft.

 

Cockpit view.  Airport in sight.

 

Lined up for Runway 28.

 

Over the numbers.

 

Full stop landing, brakes working well. 

 

Parked at RAF Akrotiri next to the BIG guy.

 

One more flight to go in this Canberra PR9.  She flies very well.  I will miss her!
The final destination for Marham Rose Canberra PR9 is Tain Airfield (EGQA) in Scotland, UK
 

[Melo965]

1 hour ago, MAD1 said:

Melo, thanks for the nice report, great pics. Question (I've asked this before of you guys): I've never done a long flight of hours (nor logged a flight plan in the sim), but wish to soonish. How did you do that one

 

Glad you like the reports and pictures.

 

Doing all this with FSX Acceleration:  My process is to first setup the flight plan in LittleNavMap (free program) on my second screen.  (Just start with the ICAO codes for the starting point and the destination)  I often add a waypoint or two near the destination airport so I will be lined up for a good arrival on the main runway.  After I am happy with the flight plan, then I open Active Sky 2016 and add the flight plan there as well.  Then I can look at the weather map and see what real world weather there is to deal with.  Then I go into FSX and load the aircraft in the parking place where I left it after the last flight.  Do my pre-flight check and load appropriate fuel.  Then taxi over to the runway and take off.

 

Some of the others use an autopilot so that they can task the aircraft to follow the set course.  My LittleNavMap does not have that ability, so I have to keep an eye on things most of the time, or at least at frequent intervals.

 

For most of the Australia flights I have added a free floating autopilot gauge.  I just use that for maintaining cruise altitude and making turns to stay on course.

 

Before the Australia Rally I flew almost everything just by hand real time.  And even now all my flights are real time, but I am retired now so that bit is much easier than it used to be. 

 

Hope this helps!

 

[MAD1]

Yes jgf and Melo, that does help heaps.

[ScottishMike]

Melo965, they have gathered at Akrotiri AB to greet you from FS9:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great flight Melo, testament to the versatility and longevity of the Canberra.

Appropriately named after the Australian capitol.

[Bossspecops]

44 minutes ago, ScottishMike said:

Melo965, they have gathered at Akrotiri AB to greet you from FS9:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

YEEEAAAAH! 

 

I was there at Kemble in July 2006 and took that RW pic at the top, and the other pics are all screenies from my Canberra PR9 repaint posted on flightsim.com later that year. That's me at Kemble, holding on to XH131, in my avatar on here.  The FS model is a Bill Holker original and it's REALLY good, and the tail art on XH134 is by Andy Knott of AGM textures. That file's still here, lastpr9.zip

 

Melo is flying my fictional Albion SpecOps version of XH131, which really WAS the last RAF Canberra flying.

[Bossspecops]

Re the long flights, like Melo I use FSX + Acceleration with Active Sky for RW weather, but I use FSTramp for flight planning, and to provide the auto-pilot if the FS model doesn't have one which works all that well. Having said that, trying to get FST to work with auto-pilots that are already installed is a constant pain, and I have yet to work out the best way to do it. 

 

I set up a basic plan, from departure to arrival, without any waypoints, and then get Active Sky to find the wind direction at both ends of the flight. From there I can apply the runways at both ends to the FST plan and then get it to generate the actual plan, either using GPS, or waypoint-to-waypoint or by using high or low level airways, plus taking into account SIDs, STARs or other local procedures at each end.

 

Then, as Melo does, I taxi to the correct runway and take off as well as I can, turn approximately onto the flightplan and engage the AP, either FST or aircraft based as appropriate (and if possible.....) I monitor it closely during the climb as sometimes FST assumes impossible climb rates for the aircraft and needs manual intervention. When I reach ToC I normally let it go while I do other things, like housework, making models, surfing the Net, doing repaints etc, while dropping back to FSX now and then to see how things are going. (I'm doing that right now as 'Austral Rose' is currently over the Timor Sea en route from Darwin to Andi Djemma in Borneo)

 

I always fly in real time, even if it means flying overnight unsupervised, but I always set my start time to ensure I can land it in my daytime. Only once did I let the aircraft, an A330 Voyager tanker, do a full Cat III Auto-land without me touching the controls at all, and that was SCARY! I'd set the auto-brake to 'max' and it was good that I did as the aircraft nearly ran out of runway on landing! I'm not sure I'd do that again, 99.9% of my landings are done hands-on 'for real'.

[TomPenDragon]

11 hours ago, MAD1 said:

Question (I've asked this before of you guys): I've never done a long flight of hours (nor logged a flight plan in the sim), but wish to soonish. How did you do that one,

First, like Kit, I never use time acceleration; all of my flights are real time.  On long-haul flights, I use the autopilot and monitor the flight - I liken it to a captain turning the flying duties over to a first officer.  I tend to fly navaid to navaid, and I try to make sure that I'm in the cockpit frequently enough to change the frequencies when I cross them.  Depending on the aircraft, I may use the autopilot for climb or descent, or I may fly these by hand.  All of my takeoffs and landings are by hand.

[Bossspecops]

For some reason I'm not seeing ANY other traffic anywhere. 

 

I've got FSX Traffic slid up to the max, and I have Just Flight's Global Traffic on line and running, but nothing.................. 

[Melo965]

9 hours ago, ScottishMike said:

 

Great flight Melo, testament to the versatility and longevity of the Canberra.

Appropriately named after the Australian capitol.

 

Great pictures.  Thanks for gathering so many Canberra's in one place.  An awesome lineup!

 

[Melo965]

3 hours ago, Bossspecops said:

For some reason I'm not seeing ANY other traffic anywhere.

 

Me neither.  Saw a fair amount of traffic in Australia, but none since I started flying west toward Scotland.

[Melo965]

8 hours ago, Bossspecops said:

Melo is flying my fictional Albion SpecOps version of XH131, which really WAS the last RAF Canberra flying.

 

One more flight to get her home safe to Tain.

 

[MAD1]

Thanks guys for the long-flight info. I now have the info and confidence to start into that world myself.

[Bossspecops]

12 hours ago, ScottishMike said:

Melo965, they have gathered at Akrotiri AB to greet you from FS9:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great flight Melo, testament to the versatility and longevity of the Canberra.

Appropriately named after the Australian capitol.

 

Are some of those the Canberra models by John Young Mike? If so, where did you get the original models from please as I can't find them anyway. Repaints galore, but no actual model files. 

[MAD1]

TPD. 'Fly with Eli 04 March, 2024.  Anchorage - Red Lake - Lock Haven.' Finally got a chance to read your post. Nice pics and story. I also started high school in 1968. (Those towns - Red Lake, Lock Haven, never heard of them, of course, just like the smaller places in Oz for you foreigners, just looked them up in Google Maps, now the route makes sense.)

Bosss. Also a nice story of your trip Sydney to Alice.

[Melo965]

23 minutes ago, Bossspecops said:

Canberra models by John Young

 

Kit, I think this is what you are looking for. 

 

https://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/files/13878/fsx-english-electric-canberra/

 

[Melo965]

14 minutes ago, Melo965 said:

I think this is what you are looking for.

 

Actually the same file is here at Flightsim.com.

 

[ViperPilot2]

MAD1 Everyone's given you some good advice; all I can add is to take small steps, and figure out how long you can sit there at one time before you get fidgety and have to get up. That's where the Autopilot comes in handy. Also... familiarize yourself with how the GPS works; it literally took me years before I could figure out how to program the thing! 

 

Us who flew (or fly) Helicopters don't get that luxury, though. No AP, so we're hand flying all the way.

 

One other thing... give your Computer a good cleaning (if you can) and run a good stress test on the system. That is, if you don't leave it on all the time. Don't want you to get 6 hours into a 10 hour flight and then your Computer craps out...

[jgf]

1 hour ago, ViperPilot2 said:

Don't want you to get 6 hours into a 10 hour flight and then your Computer craps out...

 

There is an autosave module you can install and it will save your flight at whatever interval you select (5min, 10min, etc.);  so in case of a crash, aircraft or computer, you just reload the last good save and continue.